


Tender

by silver_shot



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:15:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24294961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silver_shot/pseuds/silver_shot
Summary: Sometimes she wonders if she is good enough for him.Sometimes she wonders what if he'd not been given the chance, and by some twisted hand of fate, he'd been forced by guilt to accept her feelings. The years have gone by, and her husband still remains the desire of many woman.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Comments: 16
Kudos: 193





	Tender

**Author's Note:**

> not a new story - reuploaded from my old blog (adxe)

Sometimes she wonders if she is good enough for him.

Sometimes she wonders what if he'd not been given the chance, and by some twisted hand of fate, he'd been forced by guilt to accept her feelings. The years have gone by, and her husband still remains the desire of many woman.

She notices they way they look at him; his aura eludes a man of mystery, and danger – coupled with his good looks, what woman can resist?

Maybe she was his only option – maybe she was the easiest route for him to take.

Maybe it was pity.

“Alright, what is it?” Sasuke grumbles from behind, rousing her from her thoughts.

Sakura jumps, and turns back to her husband. She feigns ignorance, “huh?”

“What is it?”

“What is what?”

“What is it that bothers you?”

Sakura scrunches her nose, frowns slightly, and remarks that she has no idea what he is talking about.

“You're doing it again,” he continues, “when something is bothering you – you act different”.

“How so?” she asks, probing along whilst continuing to avoid the question.

“I don't know...its just different” he says, then pauses, “tell me what's wrong”.

The petulance of a child may know no boundaries, and today Sasuke appears no different with his choice of attitude. Sakura exhales, and turns to a market vendor selling an assortment of fruits. She asks for a bag of apples and Sasuke continues to nag from the background, insisting that she not ignore him.

She turns back to him, “nothing is wrong”.

“You're lying”.

Her lips thin, “can we, you know, please do this at home”. Her sentence ends on a whisper. Sasuke eyes her like a hawk, but relents and nods. He takes a step back. Sakura turns to the vendor again, and hands him the money for the apples.

He shakes his head, “only need half of that,” he says, “I've got a discount for you”.

She blinks, “oh, thank you”.

“You're welcome,” grins the vendor, “only the sweetest apples for you, _sweetheart_ ”.

The fruit vendor could not be older than twenty-five. Young, cocky, but charming nonetheless, Sakura smiles warmly and thanks the man for his generosity.

Sasuke takes a step forward, forcing the vendor to notice his presence. Sakura catches the motion in her peripheral; she nods for her husband to follow – they still have to buy rice, potatoes, and several different spices that they run low on.

Sasuke however choose to remain rooted in front of the stand, his eyes bore into the young man before him. Said man also does not back down from the unspoken challenge. With a smirk, and raised brow, the fruit vendor folds his arms over his chest, and smirks, “can I help you, sir?”

Sasuke does not reply.

“Sasuke-kun, what are you doing?” Sakura remarks softly, only intending for her husband to hear.

The fruit vendor cocks his head to the side, his eyes wander back over towards Sakura, “do you know him, sweetheart?”

Sasuke frowns, “stop saying that”.

The vendor's eyes snap back towards the man that towers over him. “Stop saying what?” he grins.

Sakura, stepping in, speaks to her husband with her back to the vendor. “What are you doing?” she asks, her voice a near whisper “lets go”.

.

.

Normally, the woman of the street fawn over her husband as if she weren't there. But today they do not do that – not when Sasuke stalks behind her; an agitated scowl marring his features. His demeanour wards off those that would normally choose to stare.

Apparently, he is not as appealing with such a demeanour.

They arrive home in silence. Sakura puts their newly bought bag of rice inside a cupboard, fruits in a bowl, and vegetables in the fridge. Then she arranges the spice rack with her restocked flavours, and apologises to her husband who sits at the counter; lost in his thoughts.

Sasuke looks up, “I don't see why you'd need to apologise”.

“I believe in hindsight, I may have ignored you a bit, today”.

He frowns, “you don't say”.

“I'm sorry”.

“Alright,” he says, not entirely satisfied.

Sakura purses her lips, and approaches her husband, “before, when you asked me what was bothering me...I didn't answer because,” she exhales, “because it was a stupid insecurity, that's all”.

This is probably one of her most pitiful attempts at calming the waters, so to speak. She knows it – Sasuke knows it; “what insecurity would that be?”

Her desire to go further into the topic runs low, “its not important”.

“Sakura–”

“Look its, I mean...its really not important”.

He remains unconvinced, “what is it?”

“It doesn't matter,” she frowns.

Sasuke stands up, “apparently it does,” he walks past her, and leaves the kitchen.

.

.

Initially, she assumes Sasuke is somewhat mad at her. Barely a sound is heard from anywhere else in the apartment; Sakura is alone in the study. She turns a page, clicks her pen, or exhales – these are all that she hears until late afternoon, when her husband bursts through the door, a smirk adorning his face as he proudly remarks, “I've figured it out”.

She doesn't respond at first, Sasuke raises an eyebrow.

She nods, slowly, “okay, um...”

“You were preoccupied this morning,” Sasuke remarks, trailing off to let Sakura figure out the rest.

She does, “like I said, it isn't important”.

“Neither is it true”.

She scoffs, “you don't even know what it was”.

Sasuke continues to smirk, “like _I said_ , I figured it out”.

Sakura closes her book, and puts the cap back onto her pen. “Okay,” she says.

“You don't believe me?”

“No”.

He takes a step forward, “do you really think I would do something if I didn't want to do it?”

She stands up; nowhere matching his height. “Ah, your classic vagueness”.

“I'm referring to our marriage”.

She freezes, and her eyes widen, “oh...wow, you actually figured it out...”

“Don't underestimate me, Sakura”.

“How on earth did you – wow!”

The pride in his face is subtle, but noticeable. Sakura begins to laugh.

.

.

“We all have our insecurities,” Sakura remarks.

Sasuke shuffles through a stack of delivery menus, grumbles that there is no good places to eat, then responds to his wife by stating, “its a ridiculous insecurity”.

“Its not,” says Sakura, pouting.

“It is,” replies Sasuke, unapologetically.

Sakura hums unaffected. She picks out a menu of a restaurant that serves the greasiest food, plus alcohol. Sasuke remarks that the menu is from a bar. Sakura smiles and states that she wants to eat there.

“I can always cook us dinner,” offers Sasuke.

“Not after last time,” Sakura smirks, nodding at the oven.

Sasuke rolls his eyes, “that doesn't count, I intentionally set Naruto on fire”.

He holds indifference over going to _**a bar**_ to have dinner – but big green eyes, and soft, sweet smiles from pink-haired beauties always seem to persuade him with the least of effort. Sakura puts on her boots, and grabs her coat. 

They walk side-by-side towards their destination.

.

.

The bar is moderately crowded, Sasuke finds a booth for them in the back. Sakura follows in motion, but her eyes dart around the vicinity. He picks up on this, and asks her about it.

Sakura sits across from him, “you don't notice it, do you?”

He asks what she means. Sakura grins and subtly nods at a few group of woman who attempt to be discreet with their gazes over towards their table. “You say that my insecurity is ridiculous-”

“Because it is”.

“But do you not see how sought after you are?”

He sees it, he knows it – but he ignores it. “I'm aware,” he replies.

Sakura smiles weakly, “there is nothing wrong with it. Its just sometimes I wonder, if things had been different...I don't know”.

“Do you think I would be unfaithful?” he asks, bitterly.

She shakes her head, “no, that had not even crossed my mind”.

He stops digging his nails into his palm, “so its just hypothetical”.

She shrugs, “yea...I mean, Naruto and Ino mentioned once–”

“They're idiots,” Sasuke interjects.

Sakura grins, “you don't even know what I was going to say”.

“I don't need to”.

“Don't you sometimes wonder, Sasuke-kun, if maybe you'd just ended up walking the most cliché path because you didn't know what else to do?”

He frowns, “do you ever wonder that?”

“No”.

“Then why would I?”

“...I don't know”.

.

.

They order their meals; greasy and deep fried. As they wait, and chat, the waitress comes by with a drink. She puts it down in front of Sakura, “courtesy of the two gentlemen over there,” she says, pointing at the bar where said men were sitting.

Sasuke frowns, takes the cocktail from Sakura, and sculls it down in one go. She protests, stating that it was hers. Luckily, it only takes a few more minutes for the waitress to come by again with another drink. This time from a group of gentlemen sitting in the booth near the front.

Sasuke scowls, and reaches for the new drink.

.

.

He stumbles on his own feet, and curses the pavement below for constantly moving as he attempts to walk. Sakura holds the forearm of her intoxicated husband, she giggles at his predicament here and then, but really, she see no need for this in the first place – had he controlled his intake.

He could have at least let her have just one drink – they were bought for her anyway!

But that petulant side of his rears its head when least expected.

“Are you coming home with me?” Sasuke slurs, turning to Sakura.

He frowns, and waits for her answer.

Sakura smiles softly, “yes I am”.

“Good,” says Sasuke, thoroughly pleased with himself.

They arrive back to the apartment. Sasuke groans that there isn't enough water in the tap, Sakura turns the knob and Sasuke smiles with a grumble of, “that's better” as the water begins to flow. Sakura takes off her coat, her boots, and heads to the main bedroom. Sasuke is already there, groaning at his choice to drink as much alcohol as he did.

“I don't even like cocktails,” he whines.

Sakura clicks her tongue, muttering a soft, “ _my_ cocktails”.

He is still wearing his shoes, Sakura attempts to help him take them off, but Sasuke is fidgety. “You're making a big deal of it,” he grumbles.

Sakura rolls her eyes.

Eventually he is ready for bed, and therefore, so is she. She assumes with Sasuke's blood alcohol level, sleep will be the easy to come by. However, instead, Sasuke begins to mutter half a conversation, “my parents wouldn't like you,” he says, nonchalantly whilst yawning.

Sakura turns to her side, frowning. “Oh,” she says, quiet and unsure.

“They wouldn't like you,” repeats Sasuke, “you're not from a clan”.

Sakura nods; she isn't too familiar with the mentality of clan's. She has heard stories of course, but each clan is different, after all.

“They wouldn't like you,” Sasuke continues, closing his eyes whilst speaking, “they wouldn't see past something so stupid like heritage...my mother may be kind, but both her and my father would never approve of our marriage”.

Sasuke isn't usually this talkative – but drunk Sasuke is full of surprises, it seems. Sakura turns fully on her side, she listens intently.

“My clan wasn't so bad with some of that blood stuff, like other clans...but there still was some elitism...” Sasuke yawns, stretching his neck.

Sakura whispers a reply, “so, we wouldn't be married in that case, huh?”

His eyes are closed, his expression is serene, and a small smirk forms on his lips. “we'd still be married,” Sasuke remarks, softly, “it just would be looked down upon – but what's so different now?” another yawn escapes him, “I'd still want to marry you...” this is Sasuke's final remark before he succumbs to his fatigue.

Sakura keeps her eyes open for a few minutes longer. She mulls over Sasuke's words, and smiles. Sleep for her is peaceful that night.


End file.
